Changed ways of greeting during the pandemic

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 28

While the coronavirus this year triggered a health alarm worldwide, measures taken to contain the virus also reshaped greetings and the rules of everyday etiquette. From elbow shakes to virtual hugs, people invented outlandish ways to meet and greet friends and family members. As the deadly virus continues to spread across the world, many have abandoned the most common form of greeting: the handshake and adhered to no physical ways of greet.

Kunal Singh, a hotelier, says, the pandemic brought about a significant change in living from greetings to handshaking, table and seating arrangements, entertainment culture, artistic activities, sporting activities and most importantly the professional customs. “People restricted themselves to good old ‘namaste’ and fist bumping to say hello. It not only helped in maintaining a distance but also to cutting down the chances of transmitting the infection,” he added.

Greeting is considered an important way of addressing people whom we meet either for the first time or the daily familiar faces we see on a daily basis. Most of us prefer shaking hands or hugging our acquaintances to greet them but in the health emergency that Covid-19 has caused, it may be considered as an act of ignorance.

“Since the virus transmits through fluid dispersed in the air while coughing or sneezing and by being near to people, we might become a medium, therefore the best way of greeting people is by joining our hands and saying a ‘namaste’ instead of hugging or shaking hands with them,” said, Nitin Arora, a college student. “When the authorities announced relaxations in the lockdown, we invented virtual hugs and kisses while meeting our friends and even used to shake our shoes,” added Arora. “Besides changing social and work ethics, rules of communication and gracing have been reshaped in personal and social life due to Covid-19,” his friend chimed in.